wow/flutter test on a Pioneer HR-99

yesterday I was at at my friend's repair shop working on my HR-99, and
decided to test the deck on his wow/flutter meter- this meter puts out
a continuous 3000 HZ tone- so we pulled a blank tape off the workbench
shelf, and taped a 3000 HZ tone from the generator onto track one, then
played it back into the wow/flutter meter and checked it

an old unserviced Scotch brand 90 min blank, with shot pads, in need of
servicing- dry reel and pinchroller posts- it registered .35%
wow/flutter, or 1/3 or a percent

I'm surprised it wasn't a lot worse than that !

I'm going to return with a serviced tape w/3000 HZ tone and see what
kind of improvements can be made- not expecting much, since all the
Pioneer decks have the small DC motors- and will show more wow/flutter
than an AC motored deck like a Telex, Akai, JVC

while there, I ran my Audiotex alignment tape through the -99 and into
the frequency counter on the bench, and monitored the tape through the
bench speakers- and kept adjusting the motor speed until the counter
reading matched what the test tape tone was

brought the deck home, and it was dead nuts on with my 90 second speed
test tape- verifying that both test tapes (the Audiotex and the 90
second speed test tape) are indeed valid and recorded properly

the Pioneer HR-series decks are nice- but one thing is glaringly
apparent- they really should have put an AC motor in those decks- and
external head height adjustment thumbwheel. If they did, the deck
would actually be better than any Akai or Telex- because the
electronics and circuits in the Pioneers are more modern and efficient.
The channel switch is brisk and quick, and not excessively noisy-
Excellent build quality as well.

perhaps an AC motor swap into a Pioneer will be the next project...